Efficient and effective transportation of items is an essential aspect of modern society. Various items are transported everyday by plane, train, automobile, and other modes. In an increasingly global society and economy, increasing numbers of individuals require effective transportation of their goods to a wide variety of destinations.
With increasing security concerns around the world, for example, due to terrorist threats, it becomes important not only to provide effective methods for transporting items, but also to identify and verify the individuals associated with the items. Such security concerns are often heightened in congested areas with large numbers of people.
An airport serves as one example of a congested area having problems associated with conventional identification and transportation of items. Checking items at an airport is difficult for both passengers and airlines. Currently, it is estimated that over a billion bags are checked by the airlines each year. Each bag requires a bag tag and an airline representative to attach it. Because the airports and airlines do not permit passengers to check their own bags, passengers often must wait in long lines before reaching an airline representative. Only after the passenger shows proof of identity to the airline representative, and physically hands over the bags, does the airline representative attach tags to their luggage. This is all done before the passenger is allowed to pass through security, increasing airport delay and airline expense.
Today, most airlines provide a kiosk, which allows passengers without bags to check-in and obtain a boarding pass. However, passengers with bags to check are required to obtain assistance from airline personnel, e.g., skycaps, ticket agents, or other representatives, to print and affix tags to their checked bags. Airline and airport personnel responsible for attaching tags face long lines and frustrated passengers. Thus, airline representatives are often motivated to tag and route bags more quickly than carefully. As well, bags are often lost, adding to the frustration of both the passengers and airlines.
Conventional bag checking and tracking systems use optical bar codes to identify and route bags. Many of the optical tags are unreadable, requiring the bags to be manually identified and routed. The manual routing increases delays and increases the likelihood of misidentifying or misrouting a bag. Lost luggage harms airlines in terms of expense, reputation, and customer loyalty.
Conventional bag checking procedures are also insecure. Airline or airport personnel, often rushed and fatigued, are required to visually examine a passenger and compare the passenger with his or her photo ID during every bag check. This often results in cursory checks and mistakes. In addition, the excessive time passengers spend in line waiting to check bags causes overcrowding in insecure areas of the airport. Such overcrowding would only contribute to increased casualties in the event of a major disaster, such as a terrorist attack. Finally, delays in checking and routing bags mean that bags spend more time in insecure areas of the airport before passing through security.
The shortcomings of conventional procedures, as explained above, are generally based on lack of automation, slow transaction time, higher-than-necessary transaction costs, increased likelihood of error, and sub-optimal security. On a more personal level, airline personnel and passengers are frustrated. Airline personnel are overworked, and passengers have lost trust and confidence in the system. Some passengers are dissuaded from checking bags at all.